York Historic Environment Record

Controlled excavation by L.P. Wenham in the vicarage garden to the north of the church and in Florence Row. Excavation revealed a sequence of Roman features, beginning with a possible north-west/south-east ditch and a 2nd century floor of opus signinum, and ending with an apisdal building of the 4th century. The foundations of the apsidal building were cut into natural but overlain by a 1m-thick sub-floor of compacted sand. Rubble demolition debris overlaid the sub-floor, indicating that the (stone slab?) floor of the building had been robbed prior to the demolition of the building. Between the late Roman period and c900 within the area of the apsidal building, a compacted layer of bones of between 1-2000 herring were deposited. There appear to be the remains of discarded fish rather than a fish processing site. East of the building four early 10th century burials were found - two associated with grave goods. A number of other A/S artefacts including several antler combs were recovered. 'Many skeletons in black soil' indicates the continued use of the area as a cemetery into the medieval period. NMR sources: The Yorkshire archaeological journal Continuation of: Yorkshire archaeological and topographical journal 41/1963/13 The Yorkshire archaeological journal Continuation of: Yorkshire archaeological and topographical journal 42/1968/117 Three entries on NMR. A further NMR entry 635662 'St Mary Bishophill 2' has been attributed to this record although the relationship is far from clear. The NMR entry is datede 1973 but may relate to the 1967 excavation? Source given - St Mary Bishophill Junior and St Mary Castlegate Published for the York Archaeological Trust 1987 by L P Wenham, R A Hall, C M Briden and D A Stocker 74-83 (not checked by HER).